Now that's a compelling action alert email

By None:

Too often, those "take action now!" emails read like they came out of the same Box O' Action Alerts used by every single organization, campaign, nonprofit.

The key to an effective broadcast email is to give it some personality, some zing, and a compelling ask. You don't have to convince people that by clicking here they're going to change the world. You just gotta make it interesting and compelling and highly personal.

Here's a sample that just arrived in our inbox from Senator Ken Gordon, the majority leader (Democrat!) of the Colorado State Senate. Subject line: Help Sheila!

Okay, we have to help Sheila MacDonald out. She is the campaign manager for Yes on C and D (this is the campaign to increase the Tabor limit so we don’t become the first state to de-fund higher education, environmental protection and Medicaid). She needs yard sign locations. I talked to her today and she was grumpy.

Sheila is from Colorado, but she went to the University of Connecticut where she played soccer or maybe it was lacrosse. No, I think it was soccer. She has been working in politics for a dozen years, first as a volunteer and then at slave wages. I know because I was one of the people who paid her slave wages. She is awesome. We need to help her get yard sign locations.

It is crucial for Colorado that these ballot measures pass. Click here to sign up for yard signs. Volunteers will put them up.

Please forward to your list and then forward again and again. The next thing we will need to do for this campaign won’t be this easy.

You are going to want to say, Ken, I signed up for a yard sign. Yard signs for education. Yard signs for health care. Yard signs for clean water. Yard signs for disabled kids. Yard signs for Colorado.

If you belong to an organization, sign up to distribute yard signs to your organization. Thanks. Did I remember to say forward this to your list?

Include me on the forward at Ken@kengordon.com so I can see how we are doing.